PyCon 2018 Startup Row

# Startup Row gives 16 free Expo Hall booths to startups!
Startup Row gives these companies the chance to exhibit next to sponsors like Microsoft, Anaconda, and SurveyMonkey. We nurture the growth of startups that use Python. Alumni from 2017 include: [Give InKind](https://www.giveinkind.com/), [Flex.io](https://www.flex.io/), and [Metapipe](http://www.metapipe.com/).
Startup Row features early-stage Python using companies operating for less than two and a half years prior to PyCon convening on May 11, 2018.
Deadline for applications is March 1, 2018.
[**Click here to apply today**!](https://bitly.com/applySR18)
## Why Feature Startups at PyCon?
Pythonistas are part of the craft that is as nascent as when a plane took flight in North Carolina on December 17, 1903. We live in a world of canvas stretched over wood frames and flight controls by wire pulleys. [K Lars Lohn](https://us.pycon.org/2016/events/keynotes/) in his talk "[Well-tempered API](https://air.mozilla.org/the-well-tempered-api-2/)" likens the state of software craft to the lack of interoperability of music between different instruments in 1680 before the proliferation of the C major scale. If we compare our discipline to the technological history of cars, nobody’s yet determined the number of wheels to attach to our car. You are a natural adventurer if you chose software engineering as your profession.
Even more adventurous are engineers who stake everything on launching a startup company. These intrepid folks bring us important advances in our technology base. Consider Wes McKinney, who turned his creation pandas into the startup Lambda Foundry. Wes exhibited on Startup Row at PyCon 2012 in Santa Clara. Today many data scientists and machine learning engineers depend on pandas every day to craft our future.
This is why we put on Startup Row at PyCon to feature 16 promising early-stage startups at our global conference for the Python community. We select companies that will raise the water level of the technology we all use.
## PyCon Startup Row: An Overview
Since 2011, Startup Row has been a part of the vibrant PyCon experience and has given engineer-founders and their teams the opportunity to showcase their products, receive high-quality feedback and connect with leaders in the Python engineering community.
Startups selected for Startup Row receive a free booth at PyCon. Founders also receive two badges to attend the conference.
### Historical Background of Startup Row
* 2011 was Startup Row’s first year and was produced in collaboration with Y Combinator.
* Since 2011, there have been roughly 75 companies that have made it to startup row out of several hundred other companies that either applied or competed in regional pitch competitions for a spot.
* Since 2014, Startup Row organizers Yannick Gingras and Don Sheu have hosted a number of pitch events in cities around North America to help source startups.
* For PyCon 2016, Startup Row organizers put on a happy hour for Startup Row founders to meet the members of local user groups from Vancouver, B.C., Portland, Montreal, Chicago, Spokane, Dominican Republic, Argentina, and Seattle. Simple hosted in its headquarters.
### Quick Facts About the Startup Row Alumni Base
**Flagship Startup Row companies include:**
* DotCloud (SR ’11) pivoted its business to become Docker. Both DotCloud and Docker have sponsored PyCon.
* OfferUp qualified for Startup Row in 2014 but couldn’t afford the trip to PyCon when SR extended an invitation. Today, OfferUp is worth over $1 billion and is a committed PyCon sponsor. OfferUp sponsored at the Gold level in 2016.
* Lambda Foundry (SR ‘12) created Pandas, the popular open source data science library.
**For the 63 companies from Startup Row batches 2011-’15:**
* 66% have some publicly recorded funding activity or have exited
* At least ~16% have achieved a successful exit to companies ranging from Rackspace to Splunk and Amazon.
* At least 20 went through a top-ranked accelerator program, 7 through YC alone
* Alumni companies have raised in excess of $800 million from over 150 different accelerator programs, institutional VCs, and individuals around the world
## Apply To Startup Row
[**Apply using our form**](https://bitly.com/applySR18)
Our selection committee will select companies based on the likelihood of market success. Market success may mean popularity with users, the likelihood of revenues, or cool technology that’s attractive for acquisition by an established company. Ambitious new approaches to solving old problems count, so are world-changing applications of cutting-edge technology. Show us your passion in your application.
**Also win a spot for Startup Row by pitching at one of our live road events**
[View the list of previous road events here.](http://i.imgur.com/iOO3VIF.png)
### Contact The Organizers With Questions
Contact Startup Row staff Don Sheu or Jason D. Rowley for interest in pitching or hosting an event (don at sheu[dot]com, jasondonaldrowley at gmail)